Carpe Diem, Not The Same Without You
by feeling-o'-stupidity
Summary: Takes place after my story Carpe Diem It May Be Your Last. The gang has to learn to live after losing their brilliant friend. Mainly Isabella's POV. K-plus  for previous character death
1. The Wake

Isabella was completely distraught with Phineas gone. Living wasn't the same without the very thing she lived for. She had been taken out of his hospital room shortly after he passed, she figured she gave them a hard time about it but she didn't remember, it was mostly a blur.

After a day which was spent mourning and preparing the wake was held for everyone. Most of Danville ended up showing up and the whole funeral home became exclusive for Phineas for 3 days. Everyone came up to the Flynn-Fletchers and shared their experience with the amazing child, from an engineer talking about a roller coaster to a morning DJ about a beach. At each memory Candace and Ferb cried at the fun memories and Linda, after having things explained to her, cried at the missed moments in her brilliant son's life.

Isabella however stood outside for the 3 days, she didn't walk into the very crowded room, but instead stood in the still crowded hallway. Isabella went home after the second day and decided to listen to some music. _Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now. This can't be happening to me. This is just a dream._ She turned off her Ipod, it rarely ever made her feel better anyways, she knew this wasn't a dream, in nightmares Phineas was dead and she would wake up and he'd be there, now he was gone when she was awake and lived on only in her dreams. She was thinking about the wake. She was happy with her last image of the boy she loved being him saying he loved her but as the days past she remembered a saying that wakes are for the living to say goodbye and she knew she would regret not going in.

The crowd was extremely dense in the room, a true testament to Phineas's life no matter how short it was. People who saw her coming they made as much of a path as they could and she squeezed her way through. As she looked around at the people in the room she knew this was the ideal funeral for Phineas, most had sadness in their eyes but all had smiles on their faces as they exchanged stories and remembered days in which the amazing person was there.

Isabella made her way around instead of taking the path that was opening and when people saw this they returned to their positions. She worked her way around talking to Phineas friends and family, everyone recognized her and they all felt sadness for her position. As Isabella made her way around tears fell slowly the whole time and all the stories made her smile. She almost laughed at the times he seemed oblivious and those when he didn't.

She finally made her way to the Flynn-Fletcher family at the front, they exchanged a glance and almost wanted to just grab each other and hope that when they were done Phineas would be back. Isabella nodded to them and headed to the coffin, she looked at the face of the boy she had spent the better part of her life trying to be near. She knelt down and thought _Phineas, you probably will never understand how much I miss you or how many people your life improved but I hope you truly are in a better place. You sure as hell better save me a spot up there next to you cause I'd hate to have to push my way in next to you the way I've been doing my whole life. Make sure that I never forget to make every day count and I'll be sure that you never die down here_

She stood up tears still streaking down her face but it was okay because she knew Phineas wouldn't die, the hundreds of people here would ensure that the legend of the small 10 year old with enough energy to fill the world, who made every day better than the last, knew what he would do that day, and was far to young to do everything he did straight through to dieing. He inspired a city to make days count and left a legacy larger than should be possible for one kid, for the city had a new motto, a motto they dedicated and followed in honor of Phineas. It meant more than anyone could fathom but yet they all understood it and its meaning.

Carpe diem.


	2. A Carnival

Chapter 2

It had been three weeks since Phi.. it happened. Isabella had spent much of the time at home watching TV or on the computer. The group of friends hadn't really talked, the fireside girls had had their weekly meeting but hadn't earned a single patch, Ferb had read almost all of the books at the Library, Baljeet was doing extra school work and Buford was playing video games and hadn't even really talked to Baljeet. Isabella wanted to see everyone again, but her lifetime (lifetime.. it had a different ring to it now) friends all reminded her, and them, of all their times with Phineas, and it was a little hard to face.

Isabella was feeling a little depressed she had spent all her time at home, this was not seizing the day, she looked at the clock it hit 11:12 right as she looked at it _I don't need a wish anyway_ she thought _My wish will never come true. Wait its past 11? I haven't done anything. I'm burning daylight._ She decided today she would do what she hadn't in weeks.

She reached the gate of the house across the street. She hesitated before opening it but took a breath and stepped into the backyard where Ferb was under the tree reading a book. A random person would see him and his pile of books and guess he was really sucked into it or a book worm, but Isabella could tell he wasn't thinking about the book, even if he was reading it faster than she could ever dream.

"Hey Ferb. Sooo.." She stopped she couldn't do it "Hows it going" her old catchphrase had not ever really been directed at Ferb anyway.

He looked at the book and shrugged, it was Ferb's way of saying it was normal, which meant everything was terrible. Isabella looked at him, she had never really talked to Ferb much, but nobody but Phineas really had. Being as Phineas was the only thing she could think of she was going to talk about him, something nobody had done since the funeral.

"Without Phineas here to make the days count all of Danville has become such a sad place, our tourism board has all but been shut down without the smiles he caused. This town could really use something to bring everybody's spirits up, like a carnival, carnivals always get people to cheer up." After a seconds pause Isabella "Ferb, I..." she calmed herself, _too soon_ "think we should build a carnival today." Isabella called the whole gang to the Flynn-Fletcher backyard. normally when they got there it was for helping build Phineas's Idea, which was usually already drawn up, but today they were needed for something else, at the funeral the priest said Phineas lived in all of them and Isabella was relying on this. She needed everybody there to get the ideas together, then the blueprints, then the carnival. In total they were done with everything but the building in about an hour.

"That's about how long it usually took" Ferb said, the first thing he had said since before Phineas died

The next hour and a half of building flew by and before they knew it a Carnival had been set up in the middle of the park with booths and rides. Everyone was having a blast, the town had all but come to a halt as a result of something happening in Danville, before it had been common but since Phineas died people were expecting their lives to be boring.

"MOM FERB AND ISABELLA BUILT A CARNIVAL IN THE PARK!" Candace shouted into the phone

"Why are you telling me this?" mom said in her cooking class, she had been told about her son's incredible inventions and was proud, but she also understood Candace had been trying to keep them safe.

"Well your missing all the festivities, the whole town is here, leave your stupid cooking class, the cook is grumpy and you've always been a great cook anyway." she hung up and looked at Jeremy with a smile on her face, it was the first time he had seen her smile in weeks and it made him glad

After everyone had had their fun and the sun went down Linda drove all the kids to their homes, everyone was smiling and talking about their day, they hadn't forgotten about Phineas being gone, nor had they moved on, but they had taken his life and continued it, part of life was laughing at the moments that were enjoyable, and if together they were even half the person Phineas was they knew they would have plenty to laugh about.


End file.
